‘Meat and Fish Institution a boon to animal breeding’

Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, Ulubaş stated that as the EBK was excluded from the privatization program in August 2005, the facilities of the institution have begun to be renovated according strategic plans prepared in 2005. The renovation projects for plants in Ağrı, Diyarbakır, Sakarya, Adana and Sincan are about to be completed, he said, while work to renovate the remaining facilities will start next year.

As a result of the renovation, the cost of processing meat is now TL 1.29 per kilogram from its previous level of TL 5.1, Ulubaş stated. The goal this year was to produce 30,000 tons of red and white meat in eight plants with 1,000 employees, and the goal was close to being achieved, he said. The EBK will be a reference point in the market for both quality standards and price in the coming year, he remarked.

The EBK’s main function is to regulate the livestock market and to assure continuity in production by undertaking a role of guarantor in the market.

Ulubaş noted that the exclusion of the EBK from the privatization program was a boon to livestock breeding in eastern Anatolia, southeastern Anatolia and eastern Black Sea regions, eliminating the market and confidence concerns of breeders.

Assessing the recent increases seen in the price of meat, Ulubaş remarked that balance will be re-established in the cattle market with the introduction of more than 2 million bovines on the eve of Eid al-Fitr (the Feast of Sacrifice). Pointing out that there had not been a significant increase in the price of meat from 2000 to 2008 but over the last two years prices rose by 25 percent, he asserted that the price of meat, which is currently between TL 11.5 and TL 12 per kilogram in the free market, will drop by TL 1 after the feast.

According to the data shared by Ulubaş, a 129 percent increase was seen in the number of bovines butchered in the first 10 months of this year compared to the same period last year, while 251 percent more poultry was butchered in the January–October period this year over the same period of 2008. In this period the revenue of stockbreeders rose to TL 127.72 million compared to the January-October period of 2008, which saw revenues of TL 37.74 million, accounting for a 238 percent increase. Poultry breeders also earned TL 15.29 million in the first 10 months of this year. This figure climbed by 318 percent compared to the revenue of the January-October period last year, which was TL 3.66 million.